The State of Working America, 2006 / 2007, by Mishel, Bernstein and Allegretto

Prepared biennially since 1988, this respected publication sums up the problems and challenges facing American working families, presenting a wide variety of data on family incomes, taxes, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty -- data that enables the book's authors to closely examine the impact of the economy on the living standards of the American people.

The State of Working America 2006/2007 is an exhaustive reference work that will be welcomed by anyone eager for a comprehensive portrait of the economic well-being of the nation.

The State of Working America remains unrivaled as the most-trusted source for a comprehensive understanding of how working Americans and their families are faring in today's economy. - Robert B. Reich

The State of Working America, 2006 / 2007
by Lawrence Mishel (Editor), Jared Bernstein, and Sylvia Allegretto

If the nation is indeed wealthier in 2006 than at the peak of the last business cycle in 2000, but many families' incomes are lower and the share in poverty has grown, where is all the money going? This answer is fairly obvious as well: wages, income, and wealth are being drawn to the very top earners and families. This redistribution is a continuation of a historic trend that began in the late 1970s, paused for a few years when the financial bubble burst in 2000, and has most recently returned.

In other words, the economist's mantra that faster productivity growth leads to higher living standards needs updating. Such growth creates the potential for widely shared prosperity. For that potential to be realized, a number of other factors--labor market institutions such as strong collective bargaining and a minimum wage with some bite, and, importantly, a truly tight labor market--have to be in place to ensure that the benefits of growth reach everyone, not just those at the top of the wealth scale.

A second key ingredient of the new economy, globalization, also has the potential to lift living standards by lowering prices and providing much greater supplies of the products and inputs that help keep the economy humming. But its fingerprints are all over the diminished bargaining clout of blue-and white-collar workers who now compete directly with workers from abroad, many of whom are highly skilled but from low-wage countries.

As these disparate economic forces have interacted, we have seen some of the best and worst of what the new economy has to offer.

The chapters in this detailed and factual book elaborate this story in greater detail by examining trends in incomes, mobility, wages, jobs, wealth, and poverty, and by placing recent developments in their historical, regional, and international context.

It is the inequality of wealth, argue the authors, rather than new technology (as some would have it), that is responsible for the failure of America's workplace to keep pace with the country's economic growth. The State of Working America is a well-written, soundly argued, and important reference book. - Library Journal

If you want to know what happened to the economic well-being of the average American in the past decade or so, this is the book for you. It should be required reading for Americans of all political persuasions. - Richard Freeman, Harvard University

A truly comprehensive and useful book that provides a reality check on loose statements about U. S. labor markets. It should be cheered by all Americans who earn their living from work. - William Wolman, chief economist, CNBC's Business Week

The State of Working America provides very valuable factual and analytic material on the economic conditions of American workers. It is the very best source of information on this important subject. - Ray Marshall, University of Texas, former Secretary of Labor

An indispensable work... on family income, wages, taxes, employment, and the distribution of wealth. - Simon Head, The New York Review of Books

No matter what political camp you're in, this is the single most valuable book I know of about the state of America, period. It is the most referenced, most influential resource book of its kind. - Jeff Madrick, author, The End of Affluence

This book is the single best yardstick for measuring whether or not our economic policies are doing enough to ensure that our economy can, once again, grow for everybody. - Richard A. Gephardt

The best place to review the latest developments in changes in the distribution of income and wealth. - Lester Thurow

Lawrence Mishel is the president of the Economic Policy Institute and was the research director from 1987 to 1999. He is the coauthor of the previous versions of The State of Working America and of The Myth of the Coming Labor Shortage and coeditor of Unions and Economic Competitiveness.

Jared Bernstein is the director of the Living Standards Program and senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. He is the coauthor of six previous editions of The State of Working America.

Sylvia Allegretto joined the Economic Policy Institute in 2003 after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.

Post your own comment

Name:

Email Address:

Remember personal info?

(To create links here or for style, you may wish to use HTML tags in your comments)
We want to know what you think. Feel free to share whatever you'd like to:

Our sponsors help us stay online to serve you. Thank you for doing your part! By using the specific links below to start any of your online shopping, you are making a tremendous difference. By using the links below, you are directly helping to support this community website:

Want to browse more blogs? Try our table of contents to find articles under specific topics or headings. Or you might find interesting entries by looking through the complete archives too. Stay around awhile. We're glad you're here.

Browse the Blogs!

You are here!

This page contains only one entry posted to Everyday Citizen on October 1, 2007 11:13 PM.

You can easily search for blog posts under a specific topic by using our List of Categories.

Visit our friends!

The nationally acclaimed Everyday Citizen recently launched
its first state-specific
site, Kansas Free Press!
Though you may not live in Kansas, see for
yourself how citizens there
are striving to be the change they want to see!

Notices & Policies

All
of the Everyday Citizen authors
are delighted you are here. We all hope that you come back often,
leave us comments, and become an active part of our community. Welcome!

All of our contributing authors
are credentialed by invitation only from the editor/publisher of
EverydayCitizen.com. If you are visiting and are interested in writing here, please feel
free to let us know.

For complete site policies, including privacy, see
our Frequently Asked
Questions. This site is designed,
maintained, and owned by its publisher, Everyday Citizen Media.EverydayCitizen.com,
The Everyday Citizen, everydaycitizens.com, and
Everyday Citizen are trademarked names.

Each of the authors here retain their own copyrights for
their original written works, original photographs and art works. Our
authors also welcome and encourage readers to copy,
reference or quote from the content of their blog postings, provided that the
content reprints include obvious author or website
attribution and/or links to their original postings, in accordance with
this website's Creative Commons
License.